Various structures of intraocular lenses are known and being used.
Generally they include an optical part made of any optically transparent material biologically neutral with respect to the eye tissues such as glass or polymethyl methacrylate and support (or fastening) members for fixing intraocular lenses in the eye owing to the engagement of the support members with the eye tissues.
The support members are generally made of a thin wire, e.g. a metal wire.
Such intraocular lenses are deficient in that, in spite of the use of wire of a minimum cross-sectional size, their weight is considerable as a substantially heavy weight of the optical part of the lens is added to the weight of the support members. This results in trauma of soft tissues of the eye at points of fastening of the lens and their further degradation during postoperation period. At the same time, it is not possible to make the support members too thin because they will cut into the tissue.
Attempts have been made to replace metal wire with polymeric support members, e.g. of supramid. But such support members also proved deficient because of the weight of the intraocular lens.
All these factors reduce the effectiveness of implantation of intraocular lenses when they remain in the patient's eye for a long time because of degradation of the surrounding tissues and call for new solutions to be sought in designing new intraocular lenses.
Moreover, when wire support members are used, a serious problem arises in developing a process of manufacture of intraocular lenses such that the interconnection of the optical and support parts should not impair quality of the optical member.